Finding Out
Marc Danziger: My son went to University of Virginia, and his senior year he calls me up on Skype and we’re chatting about what’s going on. He says, “Oh, by the way, I’ve decided to join the Army,” and, and I was literally — it was like one of those kind of “What?” kind of moments. And I said, “And where did this come from?” And he said, “No, I just thought about it. It’s done. I’ve decided to do it.” And I’m like, “Have you talked to anybody in the Army about it? Do you have like a plan? What are you going to do?” And he had a very specific plan about what he wanted to do. He’d thought it out. He’d researched it online. He’d been talking to a recruiter back in Virginia.
Nancy Kennon: Julia came to us in the eighth grade telling us she wanted to go into the Navy, and that’s what she was going to do and in the eighth grade we just said, “Sure, (laughter) we’ll see what you do.” When she was graduating from high school in February of 2010, she told me she wanted me to take her to the recruiter’s office. That was the first time that she really brought it up again.
David Lopez: I told him that, if this is what you’re going to do, I’d much rather you go all in and do the Marine Corps. They’re the toughest, I said, but you’ll get really good training, and, you know, I won’t worry as much. (laughter)
Monique Morris: One day I came home from work, and he told me that he Googled the Navy office in Montebello and walked over and signed up. I mean, that was a little shock, but he had already signed up. There was nothing I could do about it, so I just basically encouraged him, and I was happy.
Hugo De Leon: He came to me and said he was joining the Air Force, and he had already signed up, and it was just kind of shock, caught me off guard, but he went two feet first and he just went for it.
Dale Conjurski: He had talked about joining the Navy while he was in high school, talked to the recruiters, had worked a little bit out of high school. And then one day he came to me and had this big weight on his shoulders that he needed to drop, and he said, “I joined the Navy.” And I was a little shocked because that wasn’t the path that his mother and I wanted him to take. We wanted Chris to go to college. I’d gone to college, she had gone to college and that’s what we wanted him to do. We were successful. We thought that was the road to go, but it’s not always the right road. He hated school, so he said, “You know what? I want to see the world.” And he said, “This is the first decision I’ve ever made on my own, and it feels good.” And I said, “OK.” When Justin decided to join, we said, “OK, Chris, you’ve been in the Navy for nine years. What’s going on? What should we do?” And we all kind of had a big family conversation and decided that it was the best thing for Justin to join as well.
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